138 skydivers shatter world skydiving record

138 daring skydivers, falling at speeds of 355 kilometers per hour, have broken the world record for vertical skydiving, flying head-down in an enormous snowflake formation over Illinois.

Sydney: 138 daring skydivers, falling at speeds of 355 kilometers per hour, have broken the world record for vertical skydiving, flying head-down in an enormous snowflake formation over Illinois.

Three judges representing the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), the international air sports agency, certified that 138 skydivers created the formation on Friday evening over Ottawa, about 130km southwest of Chicago.

It took the team around 15 attempts over three days to break the previous record of 108 skydivers set in 2009.

Skydivers from various nationalities took part in the amazing world record attempt. Australia, UK, France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Russia, Italy and Belgium were some of the nationalities, which participated in the record feat.

“I feel amazing. There was a lot of emotion and a lot of days where we should have got it. But we dug down deep and stuck at it,” News.com.au quoted Rook Nelson, an organizer, as saying.

Following months of planning, tryouts and camps to decide who could take part in the dangerous challenge, the record breakers squeezed into six aircraft and launched themselves into the air at 5640 metres.